Great leaders are those who are able to look reality in the face, however painful it may be, and deal with it.

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

Pissing people off doesn't mean you're doing the right things, but doing the right things will almost inevitably piss people off.

A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.

None of us can change our yesterdays but all of us can change our tomorrows.

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.

Effective leaders are made, not born. They learn from trial and error, and from experience.

The most important thing I learned is that soldiers watch what their leaders do. You can give them classes and lecture them forever, but it is your personal example they will follow.

Respect for leaders by followers can't be mandated; it must be earned. It has to be given to leaders by their followers.

Get mad, then get over it.

Being responsible sometimes means pissing people off.

You heard me cry long before I knew my voice.

Violence does not and cannot flourish by itself; it is inevitably intertwined with lying.

There's no point in just hankering for the big trade unions of the 1950s or '60s.

Some gave me soft words and some blunt, some made excuses, some promises, some only lied. In the end words are just wind.

I’m not saying that everyone needs to be celibate, but you don’t need a romance to complete a story about a woman

[My novels] introduce levels of intelligence ... moral doubt [and] self-doubt, which may not pertain [to real-world espionage].

I don't trust anyone who hasn't been self-destructiv e in some way, and who hasn't gone through some sort of bout of self-loathing. You've got to bang yourself around a bit to know yourself.

They have so fundamentally flawed techniques it's ridiculous. They shoot the ball flat. They all stand upright, there's just so many things they do incorrectly.

I'm making the art for me first. I'm making it because these are the pictures I want to see. I'm making pictures that don't yet exist.

None can cure their harms by wailing them.